Facebook Archives

Ridge Historical Society

The First Country Club on the Ridge: The Ellerslie Cross Country Club – Part 6 – Equestrian Events and Conclusion

By Carol Flynn

The Ellerslie Cross Country Club was the first country club to open on the Blue Island Ridge. It was located at the southwest corner of 91st Street and Western Avenue.

The Ellerslie Club was founded by a group of Irish American Catholic businessmen. The Irish did not yet live in Beverly in appreciable numbers, but the club was indicative of the social and business success that the Irish immigrants were achieving in the United States.

The Ellerslie Club was an early “country club” that introduced golf to its members, but they were also passionate about other sports, including coursing with greyhounds and equestrian sports.

The golf and coursing events at the Ellerslie Club were covered in previous posts. This post will look at the equestrian sports.

Of course, everyone back then was familiar with horses to an extent. Horses and carriages were still the primary means of private transportation in the 1890s, although the automobile industry was in its infancy and within a decade wealthy people would be driving Fords.

The English and the Irish, however, brought a great love for horses and horse sports with them to the U.S. Racing, polo, steeple chasing, fox hunting (“riding to the hounds”), and jumping competitions were all popular by the late 1800s.

Racetracks were already established around the city and suburbs, and clubs like Ellerslie offered other sports. Indeed, the “Cross Country” part of the Ellerslie name came from the pursuit of prey, whether an animal or some other target, like a church steeple, riding over fields, jumping fences and ditches, and splashing through streams.

The undeveloped southwest suburbs of Cook County offered a great terrain to indulge in these sports. One newspaper described them as open fields and prairies with few fences and just enough natural obstacles, like streams and wooded areas, to be interesting but not too dangerous.

To acknowledge local history, this was not the first time that “riding to the hounds” was an activity on the Ridge. Thomas Morgan brought greyhounds with him from England and led riding parties on the Ridge in the 1840s to hunt down and kill the local wolves that were here when the white settlers first arrived.

By the time of the Ellerslie Club, the wolves were long gone, and fox hunting was frowned upon because of the brutal killing of the fox. Protests by humane societies led to “fox hunts” with a person on horseback acting as the fox, leading a “paper chase” where scraps of paper were dropped to show the path the “fox” was taking. When dogs were involved, an alternative was to have the “fox” drag a bag filled with anise that the dogs were trained to sniff out and follow.

The Ellerslie members were known for their fine horses and riding skills; they were considered “crack riders,” the best of the best. One newspaper said they were as comfortable in saddles as in chairs.

Joseph Crennan, the first Ellerslie president, was the veteran rider of the Club, having participated in hunts at the famous Curragh of Kildare in Ireland. His favorite mount was a hunter named “The Doctor.” He also owned a famous gray horse named “Bowling Green.”

Patrick Lawler, considered the best all-around horseman in the Ellerslie Club, occasionally performed “amazing circus feats when the members needed talent at their county fairs.” His favorite horse was named “Cossack.” Lawlor was one of the first directors and a member of the first Sports and Pastimes Committee.

Thomas Keeley, the first treasurer of the Club, was said to have one of the finest stables in the country. His horses won competitions all over the country. One of his prize winners was named “Up-to-Date.”

Women participated in these events also, and they were excellent riders who surpassed many of the male riders. One of the women riders was Kate Keeley, sister to Thomas Keeley, who like her brother was known for keeping very fine horses, including a champion jumper named “Jupiter.” She also owned a famous gaited saddlehorse named “Indian Boy.”

The Ellerslie Club brought Patrick Lawler and Kate Keeley together; they married in 1903. They certainly shared common interests.

In 1899, a competition across fields in the north suburbs was won by Joseph Crennan, riding The Doctor.

The success of that event led the Ellerslie Club to stage its own cross-country hunt, with Crennan on The Doctor as the fox. From the Ellerslie stables, riders and dogs galloped southwest through the fields to the Midlothian Country Club which had been founded in 1898, then returned to Ellerslie. Other clubs in the area were invited to participate.

The Ellerslie Club held a similar hunt on Christmas Day in 1900, with nineteen riders and dogs racing across the fields to the stock farm owned by Henry Saxon, fifteen miles southwest of Beverly, where the riders enjoyed lunch before heading back to Ellerslie.

In 1901, the Ellerslie Club purchased its own pack of beagles, which were kept at the Longwood Kennels in Washington Heights, owned by Robert J. Hoodless. There they were trained to follow the scent of anise.

In 1902, the Club members took a four-day horseback trip with stops in Wheaton, Elgin, Lake Geneva, and Waukesha, where a dance was given in their honor.

The Ellerslie members also formed a “crack” polo team, according to the Chicago newspapers.

Polo was waning in Chicago, but the Ellerslie Club brought it back. After the initial lease of sixty acres of land, the Club leased thirty more acres to expand the golf course and add a polo field. Two hundred sheep were pastured there to keep the grass low.

The Club also bought twenty-five “broncho” polo ponies from the Indian Territories and Arizona that were the Club’s property, not individual owners, which were kept in the stables on the Club’s grounds.

A steeplechase course was set up around the perimeter of the polo field. Trap shooting was also added to the grounds.

Alas, the Ellerslie Cross Country Club came to an end in 1906-7.

On Saturday, July 7, 1906, the clubhouse was destroyed by fire. Members who were sleeping there that night all escaped safely.

It was reported that the club would seek a longer-term lease, and build a new clubhouse, but that did not happen. Ellerslie ceased operations around 1907.

By then, there were other country clubs on the Ridge.

The Ridge Country Club was organized in 1902 in Morgan Park, and in 1904, rented 60 acres of land in Beverly from 103rd Street to 106th Street, Seeley Avenue to Western Avenue. They built a clubhouse at 10302-04 S. Leavitt Street. They lost that lease in 1916, and moved to the present location at 103rd Street and California Avenue.

The Beverly Country Club started in 1907 at 87th Street and Western Avenue on land that had been the apple orchard on the John B. Sherman stock farm. Sherman was the founder of the Union Stockyards and some of his farm became Dan Ryan Woods.

Many of the Ellerslie Club members joined the South Shore Country Club at . They were not involved in the formation of the other country clubs on the Ridge.

By 1911, the Ahern family took over the land on which the Ellerslie Club had been located. They opened the Beverly Gardens restaurant there, with a small golf course, likely making use of the remains of the Ellerslie Club. They expanded and incorporated as the public Evergreen Golf Club in the 1920s.

Golf pro Anna May “Babe” Ahern and her brothers ran the club after their parents died. Babe Ahern was born in 1907, became a golf pro in the 1920s, and lived to the age of 103. At her death, the Village of Evergreen Park acquired the property and, amid much controversy, turned it into a strip mall.

THIS IS GOING TO BE A VERY INTERESTING PROGRAM AND THERE ARE SEATS LEFT FOR FRIDAY NIGHT.

Yes, using all caps is "shouting," and that is what I am doing to call attention to this program.

Nestled away on a side street in Morgan Park is an old, old house, boarded up, holes in the roof. You can tell it was once a great house, and RHS researcher Tim Blackburn realized that and got curious about its background.

Tim researched the house and discovered an amazing history.

Now the question is, can it be saved? These kinds of discoveries and questions are part of the very foundation of the community.

– Carol Flynn, RHS Facebook Administrator

The Forgotten House from Our Community’s Founding

Friday, May 16, at 7:00p.m.

The Forgotten House from Our Community’s Founding

While on a run in August 2024, RHS board member Tim Blackburn jogged past a house in Morgan Park that he instantly knew was one of the earliest remaining homes in the Beverly Hills and Morgan Park area. His initial research determined the house had been moved to its current location, but discovering where it was moved from and its history turned out to be a 'needle in a haystack' investigation.

In this program, Tim will guide you through his journey to uncover the important origins of the house, built by one of the community’s earliest settler families just a few years after they aided Black freedom seekers nearby. Given the current condition of the house, this is a history you'll want to learn before it is possibly lost to time. Ridge Historical Society hopes that by educating about the history of this house, its legacy may be preserved.

Ridge Historical Society

10621 S. Seeley Ave., Chicago, IL 60643

Members: $10 | Non-members: $20 | Students under 18: $5

Get tickets online: https://bit.ly/MP-forgotten

RSVP: ridgehistory@hotmail.com 773.881.1675

Teachers and Schools of the Ridge

By Carol Flynn

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week, May 5 -9, which inspired the exploration of the role teachers and schools have played in the development of the Ridge communities.

This post got delayed for a few days because of the excitement surrounding new Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis Provost, who not only is American, but came from the south Chicagoland area.

His election ties in well with this theme because he is from an education background. His father was a teacher and Fr. Provost himself taught math part-time at Mendel High School and was a substitute teacher of physics at St. Rita High School.

As the head of the Midwest Provincial of the Augustinians, he oversaw schools run by the Order of St. Augustine (OSA) in the U.S. He was then named Prior General of the entire Augustinian Order and was responsible for schools throughout the world.

Teachers and schools have been a major part of Ridge history since the earliest days of settlement.

One of the first permanent settlers on the Ridge was William Barnard, a graduate of Amherst University in Massachusetts.

Deciding to seek new opportunities in the West, in 1846 he made it as far as Chicago, where he had a chance encounter with Thomas Morgan, the wealthy Englishman who bought over 3,000 acres of land on top of and surrounding the Blue Island Ridge. Morgan talked Barnard into taking a job as tutor for Morgan’s children. Barnard moved to the Ridge, and other family members soon followed, including his sister, Alice Lucretia Barnard.

Alice was educated in Massachusetts and later she attended Mount Holyoke Seminary. She began her teaching career at age 17 in Chicago in a one-room schoolhouse. She eventually became one of the first women principals of a Chicago public school.

Alice received considerable newspaper coverage in her lifetime – she was a celebrity in Chicago. She was described by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the best known teachers in Chicago.”

In 1890, the Washington Heights School was severely damaged by fire. It was closed for a few years while it was rebuilt, and in 1892 the school reopened, now named for Alice L. Barnard. The school is at 10354 S. Charles St.

The Ridge also had Elizabeth Sutherland, and the school named for her is at 100th and Leavitt Streets. “Bessie” was born as Elizabeth Bingle Huntington in Blue Island in 1851. Her father, Samuel D. Huntington, farmed and raised livestock, was involved in the railroads, and was Constable and Sheriff. Her mother, Maria Robinson Huntington, was likely the first schoolteacher on the Ridge.

In 1883, Bessie was named Principal of the Washington Heights School. She was the first woman to be named principal of a Cook County school. As reported above, after a fire, the school was renamed the Alice L. Barnard School.

Bessie Huntington married David Sutherland on her 43rd birthday. Back then, women teachers were not allowed to marry and keep their jobs. Alice Barnard never married.

Kate Starr Kellogg was another legendary teacher in Chicago who has a school at 92nd and S. Leavitt Streets named for her. She was born in New York, and when the family moved to the Chicago area, they established their family farm on the land at 95th Street and Hamilton Ave. where Little Company of Mary Hospital is now located.

Kate was named a Chicago district superintendent in 1909. She introduced parent-teacher associations, and supported teachers’ unions.

Two other Kellogg daughters were also teachers. Harriet taught with the Chicago Public Schools. Alice Kellogg Tyler became a well-known artist who taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

It has long been folklore that Robert Givins built his castle at 103rd St. and Longwood Drive for an elusive fiancée from Ireland who haunts the place. In reality, when he built the castle, his wife was Emma Steen, a Chicago public school teacher of Norwegian descent. Through the Chicago Woman’s Club, she championed domestic science education programs, the forerunner of Home Economics.

Morgan Park was founded as an education enclave. The Mount Vernon Military Academy, which became today’s Morgan Park Academy, was founded in 1874.

The Female College was founded in 1874 on top of the Ridge near 114th Street and Lothair Avenue. The Thayer family, Gilbert and daughter Julia, were the well-respected educators who ran that college. For a few years, the College operated out of the Givins Castle, but it was eventually absorbed into the University of Chicago.

The Baptist Union Theological Seminary was founded in 1865 along with the “Old” University of Chicago. George W. Northrup was President and Professor of Systematic Theology.

In 1877, Northrup and the Baptist Seminary were enticed to move to Morgan Park, near today’s 111th Street and Western Avenue.

Some very prominent educators related to the Baptist Seminary lived in Morgan Park. In addition to Northrup, there were William Rainey Harper, an acclaimed scholar, and Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed, a founder of the Morgan Park Baptist Church.

When the old University of Chicago closed in 1886, it was envisioned a new University of Chicago would replace it, built around the Baptist Seminary, in Morgan Park, but the decision was ultimately made to establish the new university in Hyde Park. Harper became the first president of the new university.

One of the major issues in Morgan Park’s decision to annex to the City of Chicago revolved around the community getting its own high school – Morgan Park High School. It wasn’t until the community residents were assured that the high school they were raising funds to build would not be impeded in any way by the city that the Village of Morgan Park finally voted to annex to the city.

Teachers living in Beverly were major leaders of the kindergarten and playground movements in the late 1800s.

This included all five of the Hofer sisters – Mari, Bertha, Amalie, Andrea, and Elizabeth.

Mari excelled in music education for children in a variety of professional locations. Bertha started the first kindergarten in Chicago and later became the president of Columbia College Chicago. Amalie and Andrea started the Kindergarten Literature Co. Amalie was principal of Bertha’s school and a founder of the Playground Association of America. Andrea and Elizabeth started the Froebellian School for Young Women to train kindergarten teachers in North Beverly, and in the summers, they ran the school as the Longwood Summer School.

Elizabeth’s husband George Lawrence Schreiber was an artist/teacher, just one of many well-known artist/teachers who lived on the Ridge, including John H. Vanderpoel, the first head of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his sister, Matilda, who also taught there.

Other art teachers included Louise Barwick and Ida Casson Heffron, and more recently, Jack Simmerling.

Trade schools, or “industrial arts schools,” were also addressed by people like Madame Alla Ripley, a fashion designer and influencer who lived here. She advocated for teaching the making of fine items by hand and lectured on creative dressmaking. She worked toward the development of an industrial arts school in Chicago. Classes were started at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 1920s.

The Howe family had two famous educators. Edward was a science teacher, author of books on science education, and principal of the U. of Illinois Preparatory School in Champaign-Urbana.

Annie Lyon Howe established the Glory Kindergarten in Kobe, Japan, which became the model for kindergartens throughout that country. She lived there for 40 years.

The Loring School for Girls was a private school that flourished in Beverly at 107th St. and Longwood Drive. Started in 1876 by Stella Dyer Loring, daughter of Charles Volney Dyer, physician in the 1830s for Fort Dearborn and an ardent abolitionist, it moved to Beverly in 1935. It closed its doors in 1962.

Mount Greenwood is home to two prestigious education institutions.

St. Xavier University was founded as a “female academy” by the Sisters of Mercy in 1846 in downtown Chicago. Young women of all religions attended the school, including Bertha Honore who became the famous Mrs. Potter Palmer.

After its buildings burned down in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the school moved out to the Ridge that was quickly developing as a prime suburban spot.

Mt. Greenwood also boasts the Chicago High School for Agriculture Sciences, which opened in 1985. The establishment of this school was highly controversial and opposed by many of the people in the community, but today it is one of the highest ranking schools in the city.

This is just a beginning discussion of teachers and education institutions on the Ridge or connected to the community that were part of the development of the area.

There are many more stories to tell and no doubt the readers of this post have many interesting comments to add.

Happy Mother's Day from the Ridge Historical Society!

Here is some history nostalgia from the Ridge from fifty years ago.

1975 newspaper ads are like a walk down Memory Lane:

Shopping for Mother's Day gifts at Evergreen Plaza or Klein's Department Store in Blue Island. Evergreen Plaza even had a baking contest that year. And of course, you could also eat at the restaurants in the Plaza.

Making your own hand-crafted gift for Mom.

Perhaps dinner at the Beverly House, a popular place on Vincennes for many years. .

Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost

By Carol Flynn

As for all of south Chicagoland, it came as a great surprise and delight to have the newly elected Pope Leo XIV come from this extended community.

Congratulations and best wishes to Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV.

There will be considerable information about his childhood and past coming forward, and RHS will share relevant information that relates to the communities of Beverly, Morgan Park, and Mt. Greenwood, although there is no reason to compete with the many other sources out there, including people who know him personally.

One myth that can be dispelled immediately, however, is that he lived in Beverly. There is no evidence of that.

Fr. Prevost’s life from high school on has been tied to the Order of St. Augustine, known as OSA. This is a “mendicant” religious order, which means the members lead a life of poverty and live in urban areas to preach and be ministers. They do not use the traditional monastic model of living in one community where the members own and work the property. Fr. Prevost spent much of his time in Peru.

In 1999, he was named the Provincial, or head, of the Midwest Province of the Augustinians. At the time, their headquarters were at the St. Nicholas of Tolentine Monastery in Olympia Fields at 20300 S. Governors Highway. They were located there for many years.

He returned to the south suburbs and lived here for a while. In 2001, he was called back to Rome, and after that, he returned to Peru.

The Augustinians owned considerable land in Olympia Fields that they sold off in 2004.

It was some time after that land sale that the headquarters for the Midwest Augustinians moved to 10161 S. Longwood Drive, the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel of the Augustinian Order, where it is located today. The building was once the convent for St. Barnabas Parish.

The Midwest Augustinians website reports that Fr. Provost returned here in 2013 for a while but his addresses were always Augustinian facilities in the south suburbs.

While he did not live in Beverly, Pope Leo XIV still has a strong connection to the community through the “new” Augustinian headquarters on Longwood Drive.

He now tops the list of "historically important people affiliated with the Ridge communities."

Ridge Historical Society

Cinco de Mayo

By Carol Flynn

Today the Ridge Historical Society looks at the history of the Mexican community on the Ridge – and those train whistles that can be heard day and night from trains going into and out of our neighbor to the south, the City of Blue Island, with whom we share the Blue Island Ridge.

Cinco de Mayo, or May 5th, is an annual celebration of Mexican American culture. The origin of the day commemorates the Mexican army’s victory over the French at a battle in 1862. The success of the smaller Mexican army was a morale booster for the Mexicans, even though eventually Mexico City fell to the invaders.

With time, the day took on more significance in the U.S. than in Mexico to showcase the traditions and pride of Mexican immigrants. Cinco de Mayo should not be confused with Mexico’s Independence Day, September 16, which is more important in Mexico.

Historically, the Mexican community was not that prevalent in the early days of Beverly/Morgan Park, although it is well represented now. However, Mexicans played a vital role in the development of the City of Blue Island. Today, Blue Island’s population is about 50% Hispanic.

Blue Island first developed as a “river city” located on the Calumet River and Stony Creek, and of course the building of the Cal-Sag Channel was very important for commerce. With the coming of the railroads in the mid-1800s, Blue Island became a “railroad hub.”

Many ethnic groups worked on the U. S. railroads – the Chinese, European immigrants, African Americans. But it has long gone unrecognized that over 50% of the tracks in many areas of the country were laid by Mexican workers.

In the early 1900s, the railroad companies sent recruiters into Mexico to entice the people to come to the States to work for the railroads. The recruiters promised nice housing and a high standard of living. The reality for the families that came, however, was very different. They lived in boxcars on the railroad yards, with wooden bunks and no windows, in dangerous conditions, with no running water and no fuel for heat.

The first “railroad camp” in the Chicago area was established in Blue Island in 1917 to house the “traqueros,” or track and maintenance workers, who came here, often with their young families. This was set up around 123rd Street and Winchester Ave. The camp developed the reputation as one of the worst in the country.

With time, as with most immigrant groups, the Mexican workers moved into other jobs and established their own businesses and communities. It is a tribute to this hard-working group of people that they overcame not only the destitute conditions forced upon them but also extreme prejudice to flourish in the country that invited them to move here and became dependent upon them for both the railroad and agriculture industries.

In 1974, the Blue Island city council banned the painting of a mural at 13337 Old Western Ave. that depicted the history of Mexican laborers. The city claimed it was against zoning laws for advertising signs. The U.S. District Court found in favor of the mural painters, stating it portrayed “an idea,” not an advertisement. The mural was completed.

With time, the mural faded, but it was repainted in 2016 as a community project, a vibrant reminder of the history of the Mexican community on the Ridge.

Originally posted May 5, 2023

Update: The mural reconstructed in 2016 honors the original mural but does not duplicate it. Pictures of the original mural became available to the Blue Island Public Library last year from Agnes Brown, who found her photos taken in 1975 at a dedication of the original mural.

Ridge Historical Society

Historically Important People Connected to the Ridge

By Carol Flynn

The Blue Island Ridge communities have been home to some historically important people, as well as some "famous" people who might not exactly make it into the history books.

Top of the list is Paul Harris, the founder of the Rotary/Rotary International global service organization. He lived at 10856 S. Longwood Drive, and a new book about the history of the house has just come out, being sold as a fund-raiser for the restoration of the house. There will be more on that house and the book in a separate post. RHS researcher/writer Carol Flynn was a contributor to that book.

The publication of that book prompted starting a list of some of the historically important/famous people who have lived in the Ridge communities.

Here's a start on that list and more entries are welcomed. The criteria for inclusion on the list is very broad: they have to have lived here and have significant recognition outside of our own community for the impact they have had on society, good or bad or perhaps just "sensational."

Here is a beginning list:

– Paul Harris, founder of Rotary/Rotary International

– John Paul Stevens, Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

– Amelia Earhart, aviatrix

– William Merchant Richardson French, first executive director of the Art Institute of Chicago

– Mae Jemison, U.S. Astronaut

– Pleasant Rowland, creator of American Girl Dolls

– Kathy Reichs, crime author and forensic anthropologist

– Thomas Seay, Imperial Potentate of the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (highest position in the Shriners)

– Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon Church)

– John Vanderpoel, first head of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, artist and author of "The Human Figure"

– William Rainey Harper, first president of today's University of Chicago

– Ruth Ellen Church, Chicago Tribune food columnist, first wine columns in the U.S.

– Actor George Wendt

– Actor Gary Sinise

– Ebenezer Peck, mentor to Abraham Lincoln, judge

– Kanye West gets honorable mention because he went to school here but did not live here; same thing with Jenny McCarthy

There are a lot of people who can be added to a "second tier" list – their fame is more localized but does reach past this community to an extent. Some examples:

– Robert Platt, University of Chicago Geography Department

– Jack Simmerling, artist and preservationist

We can start a "Who's Who" for the Ridge communities, including current people.

Other names to include?

The Forgotten House

from Our Community’s Founding

Friday, May 16, at 7:00p.m.

The Forgotten House

from Our Community’s Founding

While on a run in August 2024, RHS board member Tim Blackburn jogged past a house in Morgan Park that he instantly knew was one of the earliest remaining homes in the Beverly Hills and Morgan Park area. His initial research determined the house had been moved to its current location, but discovering where it was moved from and its history turned out to be a 'needle in a haystack' investigation.

In this program, Tim will guide you through his journey to uncover the important origins of the house, built by one of the community’s earliest settler families just a few years after they aided Black freedom seekers nearby. Given the current condition of the house, this is a history you'll want to learn before it is possibly lost to time. Ridge Historical Society hopes that by educating about the history of this house, its legacy may be preserved.

Ridge Historical Society

10621 S. Seeley Ave., Chicago, IL 60643

Members: $10 | Non-members: $20 | Students under 18: $5

Get tickets online: https://bit.ly/MP-forgotten

RSVP: ridgehistory@hotmail.com 773.881.1675

Ridge Historical Society

The First Country Club on the Ridge: The Ellerslie Cross Country Club – Part 5 – Hare Coursing with Greyhounds – Continued

By Carol Flynn

The Ellerslie Cross Country Club, the first country club to open on the Blue Island Ridge at the southwest corner of 91st Street and Western Avenue, held hare coursing events on the golf course during the non-golf months.

Hare coursing was a sport especially popular in England and Ireland in which greyhounds competed to chase and attempt to capture a hare, which was usually a jackrabbit in the U.S.

The dogs were judged on speed and agility, and the winner was not necessarily the dog that caught the hare. While a point was awarded for catching the hare, if the hare escaped, that was fine, too, although that rarely happened.

Note that humane groups were against this and other “bloodsports” like dog fighting, but they were legal in the late 1800s. Hare coursing eventually turned into greyhound racing, but hare coursing is still legal – and controversial – in some western states where jackrabbits are plentiful.

The Ellerslie Club introduced the sport, the forerunner of greyhound racing, in a big way to Chicago. Past Mayor John Hopkins, the uncle of one of the Ellerslie Club’s founders, was a fan of the events at the Ellerslie Club.

Some of the coursing events were written up in great detail in the newspapers. The first coursing event held at the Ellerslie Club, in October of 1899, was discussed in the preceding post.

In a memorable match in April of 1900, the hare escaped the golf course, crossed the railroad tracks to the west, and disappeared into the woods of Evergreen Park.

The two competing dogs followed it and disappeared from the spectators’ sight. After a three-mile run, a dog by the name of Password emerged victorious.

Password was owned by Michael Allen, whose champion dog St. Clair won the first coursing event at Ellerslie. Password was the daughter of St. Clair.

Michael Allen, who was introduced in the previous post, was born in Ireland in 1855 and came to the U.S. in 1874, and by 1899 he was a naturalized citizen. He and his wife Catherine “Kate” (Walsh) Allen, and their three children lived at 4459 Halsted Street and owned a store and saloon.

Although storekeeper and “liquor dealer” were listed as his official employment, Allen had an obvious passion for hare coursing with his greyhounds. He won thousands of dollars from coursing.

Greyhounds usually competed for just a few years and were retired well before the age of five years old, so there were always new, young, fresh dogs coming into competition.

In addition to the champions already mentioned, some of Allen’s other famous dogs were named Pathfinder, Cork Screw, and Apple Blossom. He was considered to have one of the finest kennels (referred to as stables back then) in the country, and participated in matches all over the U.S.

But the sport was becoming increasingly controversial. In 1899, Allen was charged with cruelty to animals by the Humane Society for conducting an informal hare coursing event in an open field in Chicago. In court, he showed that he followed the “sporting principles” for the sport so he was acquitted.

The success of the coursing events at the Ellerslie Club led the founders of the club, including Joseph M. Crennan and Thomas J. Keeley, profiled in Post 2 of this series, to join with Allen and other backers to open a new coursing club in Chicago, and this led to the Chicago Coursing Club in 1904.

There had been an informal “Chicago coursing club” that held events in a field at 47th Street and Western Avenue that was often in trouble with the law and the Humane Society, but this new club was founded outside of city limits where there were no local laws governing this type of operation.

Forty acres of land were leased in Mount Greenwood, running from 105th to 111th Street, Sacramento west to Kedzie Avenue. The course was just to the west of the railroad tracks next to Mount Greenwood Cemetery, so there was already well-established public transportation to the area.

The founders enlisted James “Big Jim” O’Leary to join their efforts, which, according to the Chicago Tribune, was an “indication that the backers of the enterprise mean to give it a thorough trial” “to establish coursing as a regular sport” in Chicago.

Big Jim was the son of Catherine and Patrick O’Leary, whose barn was the site for the start of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Big Jim was a famous gambler, the scourge of fellow Irishman Police Chief Francis O’Neill for the illegal operations Big Jim ran.

At the same time, Big Jim was a folk hero to the public because he ran an honest operation and was known to never default on a bet. Betting on the greyhound coursing events was an important part of the enterprise and Big Jim’s involvement meant the betting would be honest and fair.

The first officers of the Chicago Coursing Club included Michael Allen as President, O’Leary as Treasurer, and Crennan and Keeley as Directors.

The Chicago Coursing Club opened with its first event in May of 1904, attended by over “1,000 spectators crowded into the grandstand.” The newspapers described the park as “one of the best in the country.” To comply with the laws of the Humane Society, escapes for the jackrabbits were built into the burlap fences and most of the rabbits managed to elude the dogs.

Twenty-four dogs were entered. Big Jim O’Leary’s dogs were named Troublesome and Yankee Dime. Crennan also had dogs entered, including Colonial Girl, Modern Girl, and Judge Brown.

Allen and his partner Wilson entered Rosie Macree, Bill Dugan, Advertiser, Barefoot Boy, Our Minnie, and Kitty of the Hill.

The second day of the inaugural event, when the finals were held, attracted twice as many people, with over 2,000 in attendance. As no surprise, there was no final round because by then the top three dogs were all owned by Allen – Bill Dugan, Barefoot Boy, and Our Minnie – and the purse of $540, worth about $18,000 today, was his.

The Humane Society was against the new operation from the beginning. In 1905, someone, never identified, managed to steal the fifty rabbits that the Club was going to use for an event, so the event had to be canceled.

After a few years, differences in the philosophy of running the Club caused Big Jim O’Leary to leave the operation. He believed it should be run strictly as a sporting and betting operation, but others felt it should be run as a commercial revenue maker.

And then Mount Greenwood finally incorporated as a village in 1907, and with that came rules and laws and licenses.

The Chicago Coursing Club finally ended operations around 1908.

The next post will look at the other sporting events that went on at the Ellerslie Cross Country Club, the equestrian events that gave the club its name.

Friday, May 2, at 7:00p.m.

A Brief & Exciting History of Brick Architecture in Chicago

Brick is an ever-changing material that has defined Chicago and its architecture. Learn the trends and fashions through Chicago's brick history: Homegrown common bricks, imported red bricks, wild colors, textures, and terra cottas of the 1910s-30s, Miesian modern bricks and more. You'll discover the technology and architectural innovations that can be found across Beverly, Morgan Park, and Chicago, written into its brick. This presentation will be accompanied by dozens of Will Quam's photos of buildings and their details.

About the presenter: Will Quam is an architecture historian and photographer. He has been called "Chicago's premiere brick expert" by Geoffrey Baer, and his photography and passion for Chicago's brick history have been featured on Block Club Chicago, WTTW, The Chicago Tribune, WGN and more. His architecture tours were named some of Chicago's best by Curbed and the Chicago Reader. His book on this history of brick architecture in Chicago, Fire and Clay, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2026. Learn more at www.brickofchicago.com

Members: $10 | Non-members: $20 | Students under 18: $5

Ridge Historical Society

10621 S. Seeley Ave., Chicago, IL 60643

Get tickets online: https://bit.ly/bev-bricks

RSVP: ridgehistory@hotmail.com 773.881.1675